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Here I flat AQs against what I suspect may be a decent player. 3 betting is definitely an option, but AQs plays decently as well, I think. I’m ahead of his range, but he’ll have position so by calling preflop I’m looking at keeping the pot controlled/small.

On the flop with top pair I check / call. Danger of the flush killing my action or him hitting, but, meh. I donk turn because I don’t want him checking behind. I bet small, hoping to get a call from a weaker Q or maybe a middle pair that wants to see what I have. Same with the river; betting larger is less likely to get a call, I think.

Next hand I 3 B KK because I’m in the blinds. Raiser folds, player that I have marked as a fish calls. Dryish flop, but he’s a fish. Turn I bet tiny because we’re pot committed and we still have the river to go.

Next hand a player with decent stats gets aggressive. I’d been playing LAGgy because the table is short, but was still surprised given his stats that he 5 bet-shoves.

Later he did a similar thing with TT and ran up against another AA.

Next, a coinflip; QQ in the blind versus an EP raise. No comment; regular play from both players.

Next, a bad player with some poor aggression; min-raises my flop bet, then almost pots the turn. To speak his language, I min-check raise him, leaving him less than a dollar. When the river card showed, I knew it was a bad card.

Next, an undersized 3 bet from an undersized stack in the blind, so I shove and another coin flip.

Last large-pot hand.

On the turn he makes raises. He’s 27/13 but only over 15 hands, so not an idiot, but that’s about all I know. 79 has a straight but I have the flush draw plus two overcards. Against most tens, say KT/QT, anything that doesn’t have an Ace or Jack (which would kill one of my outs) I’m still a pretty decent dog with only one card to come.

But since I opened from early position, plus I bet the flop and turn, JJ/QQ/KK/AA are not out of my range. If I’m him and I have any kind of ten, I have to fold here if I were him.

In his position, I can only figure he’s floating the dry board, or maybe has 99/77/55 or something and would be as happy not to see the river anyway. But unless he’s intentionally floating me with air, I don’t like the turn raise, especially if he has a bluff catcher like a ten or middle pair.

A lot of luck in some of these hands from the last day; winning both coin flips, flopping top pair against JJ, getting action from 88 with AA. Plus hands that didn’t make the pot-size cutoff for analysis: flopping a set of 5s three way though unfortunately the raiser folded the turn, after timing down, turning a flush but not getting a call on the river. But getting a bad player to call my squeeze with KK, then getting to call flop with nothing and calling off his stack when he turns a pair with a ten always helps the win ratio.

So, after four sessions:

1,324 hands

VPIP – 19.6

PFR – 13.3

3Bet – 2.75

Steal – 46.5

Button Steal – 60.9 (not bad; I’ve been trying to bring this down a bit)

39.64 bb/100

bb/100 – 39.64

Net – + $52.48

I have no delusions that 39 bb/100 is sustainable, even with some of the bad play that I’ve seen. Still, it’s always nice to be winning.

First hand is kinda gross. QQ, 3 bet by a 14/10. If the player were a little more aggressive I’d be more fine with this as, since he’ll have position, this could be AQ as well as AK or even AJs.

It was a little annoying that he flats my 4 bet IP preflop. Not that it mattered, given the pot size.

At least he waited for the blind to come around, before leaving the table. Still, kinda cheap, IMHO.

Next, I don’t recommend this play. Early position raiser is 11/7 so I could 3 bet, but I’ll have position on him so I opt to flat. I may have to fold if an Ace comes on the flop, especially if there are other callers making it more likely that someone has one.

But I flat. Flop comes J high, and a donkey that I’ve played before, 60/3, min bets, so I raise. He raises, I raise again, and he flats?

On the turn he checks and I put him in, and he actually tanks. I know that because of the small preflop raise that his range is wide and includes all pairs and probably 54 and maybe even J5s/J4s, but why raise my flop bet and then flat my re-raise?

Gross situation I put myself in with the preflop call, but then I guess I get to trap and idiot who likes his top pair no kicker on the flop.

Again, I don’t recommend this kind of play.

Next villain is tight; 9/8 over 99 hands. I just hate to fold JJ here if he has AK, so I’m ready to call at least one street postflop if the flop is low.

His 3 bet means I don’t have odds to set-mine here, but JJ does have other post-flop opportunities.

Next hand I only have a couple hands on this guy, so I’m pretty much in the dark, other than he’s short and therefore likely not a good player.

I snap called his river bet because it didn’t make any sense with a 66T33 board. Maybe he has a ten or pair bigger than a 3, but I guess he’s expecting an Ace high chop with two pairs on the board, or just straight out bluffing his missed flush draw.

Next guy I tried to chase around PokerStars because he left the table soon after. He’s the type of player that you need to see just a few hands and then you try to get in a hand with him, knowing what you need to do, but, this was one of the first hands against him. He’s 83/33 over 11 hands in my database.

Unfortunately he disappeared for a while and then showed up at a table with a wait list and I couldn’t get on until after he lost his money to someone else.

Next hand villain is decent; 22/17 over 111 hands with a 3bet stat of 16, so I choose to not fold AQ. I could be dead to AK, or not …

One last hand, which wasn’t very big pot-size wise, but it had an interesting situation.

Squeeze comes from a tight player; 10/7 over 218 hands. How much does he understand? How wide is his range here?

I’ve transferred all but $100 from Full Tilt to Stars, then cashed out PokerStars down to $200. I just haven’t been playing a lot and I thought I’d have better uses for my money.

This weekend I decided to go back to where I started; $10 NL full ring, non-Zoom.

Some hands from day one, in descending order of final pot size:

Villain’s second hand at the table so I have no stats. Even against a early position raise I’m fine raising and getting KK in preflop, for reasons like his hand turns out to be:

Next, caller is 38/4 over only 25 hands, but this is the type of player that I’m playing this level for. The min-3 bettor is 53/18, but this was early against him as well. I’m fine getting AKs in preflop against players like this, especially with the min 3-bet.

The other option here would be to flat the min-raise and see the flop, then maybe fold turn if he fires two barrels. Not overly fond of that option way out of position like this. Player in between who calls all in pre with A3o ….

Next player is 94/44 over 18 hands. This is the kind of player you see at home games. I flop top two and bet, hoping not to fold bottom pair type hands, then snap call the river shove … he got his two pair that he was calling for on the river and wanted value.

Here the same villain that min-3 bet before. I’m getting too good of odds to fold KQ in position so I call. Flop top pair, but I’m dead to AQ/KK/AA so I just call. Turn I’m only losing to AQ so I raise a little, hoping he can’t fold his underpair.

Medium pairs are common for min-3 bets, so I could be behind a set of tens, but it feels more like 99/JJ or AT maybe. On the river his hand doesn’t feel like AK; with this sort of player I wouldn’t expect him to bet the turn as well, so I bet size hoping AT/JJ/99 will call …

Next villain is 26/11 over 120 hands. Another min-3 bet and again I’m getting odds to complete.

Flop an OESD, call as he bets, but there’s a Q on the flop, so by the time my straight fills, any K beats me so I just check/call.

Next is 67/21 over 39 hands. Not the greatest board, but I can’t fold when I have something and his min-check-raise could mean A6.

This is the simplest, easiest to remember starting poker hand chart for 6 handed No Limit Texas Holdem:

Starting Poker Hands No Limit Texas Holdem 6 Max

How it works:

K or bigger from early,

Q or bigger from middle position,

J or bigger from the cutoff,

10 or bigger from the button, and the same for the small blind.

Plus pairs, JJ from early, then 10-10, then 9-9.

This ensures that you will be playing good hands, and will make it easier to avoid difficult decisions later.

Make sure that you always raise 2.5 – 3 big blinds when you play these hands (ie.: if the blinds are 5 and 10, raise to 30). If someone before you likes to play every hand and has already just completed the blind, raise them up 4 or even 5 big blinds. They are playing any crap; make them pay to see the flop with their garbage.

There are dozens of additional considerations, too many to include in a single post.

Is everybody playing every hand?

Is there one person raising every hand?

Has a reasonable player already raised?

Is there someone who likes to re-raise whenever someone raises?

Is everyone always folding when someone raises?

Does no one fold when someone raises?

Does the person right ahead of you play every pot?

Does everyone have a full stack, or are some players playing with only 10 or 20 big blinds?

Do you have more than 10 big blinds, or are you playing short?

Is this a tournament, or a cash game?

What if there are only 5 at the table? Or 3? Or 8? How does that change the list?

And that’s just preflop considerations. If you raise preflop and get a call, what happens on the flop?

I’ll go into these consideration as I re-write my original blog, but if you need advice before I get around to re-writing them:

I’ve been waiting for years for this domain to come available. It belonged to someone else and they had abandoned it before I started playing poker. Even after it expired I couldn’t get it.

Now, after changing hosts, I looked again, and it was finally available. So I grabbed it.

Thing is, now I know how to play, and I’ve reached the point where I don’t do as much playing as I used to. So, what am I going to fill the pages with? Very few Aha moments on the horizon, and not a lot of grind status updates.

But I do still play, even though Black Friday, April 15, 2011, knocked out a lot of my volume, and stopped me from getting comfy at $100nl full ring tables at PokerStars.

And I plan to re-visit some of my old posts, re-write them, make them simpler and clearer, and add any more experienced thoughts that I can add. This has always been geared toward the beginner to intermediate level player and that isn’t likely to change since I’m too busy and not interested in grinding up to nosebleed stakes.

So I’m glad you found this place, and I hope you’ll check back and see how far we can take it.